Dear John,

We finally have momentum in the fight to ban congressional stock trading!

The New York Times has released a new, in-depth report covering the three years between 2019 to 2021. It shows almost 200 current U.S. senators and representatives reported a trade of a stock or another financial asset by themselves or an immediate family member and more than half of them sat on congressional committees which provided direct insight into the same companies and stocks.^[1]

They found that 81 Democrats and 101 Republicans filed up to 3,700 trades with up to $100 million in possible volume. Many had 100 percent winners, with some perfectly timed.

Gee, I wonder why.

Now, after years of opposition from Congressional leadership from both Republican and Democratic parties, Speaker Pelosi announced that the House would consider a ban on members of congress and their families trading stock.

There’s new energy for banning stock trading by members of Congress, but for that to translate into victory and passage of a bill, we need to pile on the pressure now. Please sign and send a message to Congress immediately.

The New York Times investigation revealed a lot.

Of the 182 members of Congress detailed in the report, 49 Democrats and 44 Republicans sat on committees that directly oversaw the companies they traded.

Breaking that down, 25 percent of the Energy & Natural Resources Committee traded ExxonMobil or Chevron stock. On the Environment Committee, 33 percent of members traded oil-field services and 8 members of the Armed Services Committee traded defense or aerospace stocks.

Take Republican Bob Gibbs. He traded Big Pharma AbbVie stock while his committee investigated them. Republican Roy Blunt traded Phillip Morris while serving on a subcommittee overseeing public safety.

Or Republican Mike Kelly, whose wife bought almost $50,000 of stock in steel products manufacturer Cleveland-Cliffs just one day after Rep. Kelly was briefed in committee on positive news soon to be released about the company. Kelly’s wife bought at $4.70 and sold at $18.11, for a 300 percent gain. It was also the only individual trade she made that year.

The examples go on and on. And it’s not just Republicans. Democrats from Nancy Pelosi and Judy Chu to Alan Lowenthal and more have similar trades and potential -- if not outright -- conflicts of interest.

Americans shouldn’t have to worry about whether our elected officials are serving the public, or their own pocketbooks. Sign and send a message to your members of Congress and demand they ban Congressional stock trading now.

Thanks to the New York Times report, there’s new momentum on our side. Thank you for not letting it go to waste by turning up the heat now.

In solidarity,

Robert Reich
Inequality Media Civic Action

^{[1] Stock Trades Reported by Nearly a Fifth of Congress Show Possible Conflicts, New York Times}